The Garden of Serpent's Delights
13/05/2011 09:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
izmeinaIzzie's not been slinking much in Cyberia lately. Had a cold recently so spent many evenings snoozing and the crisp crunchy sunny days with such delicate light are far too gorgeous and precious to be spent anywhere but lurking outdoors
It's still been a seriously dry autumn so far and the dams will be well and truly empty before the dreaded December arrives again. But it was amazing to see how all the weeds and critters came to life after the first and only decent rains in early April
Taken to sitting out in the garden on mornings not at work and watching the antics of the various birds as they sing, squawk, squabble and gobble on the feast of wattles, grevilleas, banksias and woollybush trees
Also been a bit of a sneak. Decided to get around the bad habit of procrastination by digging and preparing the holes first and only then buying the trees. So far planted a red guava and a mango and hoping to add more mangoes this weekend.
Gotten into the routine of dedicating Monday afternoons to gardening and this ritual seems to be working. Hugely helped by the amazingly beautiful weather
The garlic bulbs and coriander planted a few weeks ago are now popping up their little heads but the big thing this season are ten very precious little bulbs in pots
Planted ten little saffron bulbs three weeks ago and now nine of them have little green leaves or sprouts popping up.
Apparently they like lots of sunshine and very well drained soil. Wet feet are a total no no so they sound just perfect for a low maintenance Lair
The flowers will appear for 30 days or so and then die off. After that too much water will just rot the bulbs as they go about the business of dividing and getting all big and fat for next autumn
Got them from a farmers market from one of the producers of organic olive oil. They've diversified into saffron and for a few weeks of the year sell some of the excess bulbs and the saffron spice itself.
Izzie says that the instructions make them sound like a very low maintenance and easily grown plant. Well sort of. They are seriously high maintenance when you've got a few hundred thousand of them all flowering at once and having to be all picked by hand when the flowers open just after dawn.
It is so wonderful to once again want to be doing stuff in the garden and to have both the time and the energy and hopefully soon the rain.
Got three months or so to make the most of the best planting season and to have all the critters looking after each other once the sizzling summer arrives again.
The delicious Diggers catalogue has arrived. This is the time to get dragonfruit, blueberries, cane berries and all the other weird and wonderful heirloom weeds they have in their collection
After five years of documented trial and error - mostly error - Izzie has finally worked out what does grow well in the Lair and what doesn't and can plant accordingly
But most peeved indeed that the pathetic nanny state has now totally banned beautiful brugmansias. No witches garden should be without an angel's trumpet or two and the evil beasties have just spoiled our fun. Got three several years ago and none of them survived the following summer. Simple serpent laziness and now there's no second chances.
Got three months to get the soil all nice and juicy and packed with vitamins, minerals and lots of earthworms. Then will need to cover it with wood chips or straw as a sunscreen before the next sizzling summer from hell arrives
It's still been a seriously dry autumn so far and the dams will be well and truly empty before the dreaded December arrives again. But it was amazing to see how all the weeds and critters came to life after the first and only decent rains in early April
Taken to sitting out in the garden on mornings not at work and watching the antics of the various birds as they sing, squawk, squabble and gobble on the feast of wattles, grevilleas, banksias and woollybush trees
Also been a bit of a sneak. Decided to get around the bad habit of procrastination by digging and preparing the holes first and only then buying the trees. So far planted a red guava and a mango and hoping to add more mangoes this weekend.
Gotten into the routine of dedicating Monday afternoons to gardening and this ritual seems to be working. Hugely helped by the amazingly beautiful weather
The garlic bulbs and coriander planted a few weeks ago are now popping up their little heads but the big thing this season are ten very precious little bulbs in pots
Planted ten little saffron bulbs three weeks ago and now nine of them have little green leaves or sprouts popping up.
Apparently they like lots of sunshine and very well drained soil. Wet feet are a total no no so they sound just perfect for a low maintenance Lair
The flowers will appear for 30 days or so and then die off. After that too much water will just rot the bulbs as they go about the business of dividing and getting all big and fat for next autumn
Got them from a farmers market from one of the producers of organic olive oil. They've diversified into saffron and for a few weeks of the year sell some of the excess bulbs and the saffron spice itself.
Izzie says that the instructions make them sound like a very low maintenance and easily grown plant. Well sort of. They are seriously high maintenance when you've got a few hundred thousand of them all flowering at once and having to be all picked by hand when the flowers open just after dawn.
It is so wonderful to once again want to be doing stuff in the garden and to have both the time and the energy and hopefully soon the rain.
Got three months or so to make the most of the best planting season and to have all the critters looking after each other once the sizzling summer arrives again.
The delicious Diggers catalogue has arrived. This is the time to get dragonfruit, blueberries, cane berries and all the other weird and wonderful heirloom weeds they have in their collection
After five years of documented trial and error - mostly error - Izzie has finally worked out what does grow well in the Lair and what doesn't and can plant accordingly
But most peeved indeed that the pathetic nanny state has now totally banned beautiful brugmansias. No witches garden should be without an angel's trumpet or two and the evil beasties have just spoiled our fun. Got three several years ago and none of them survived the following summer. Simple serpent laziness and now there's no second chances.
Got three months to get the soil all nice and juicy and packed with vitamins, minerals and lots of earthworms. Then will need to cover it with wood chips or straw as a sunscreen before the next sizzling summer from hell arrives
